•April 6, 2016•

By Ariana Cherry
For the News Progress

New streets and sidewalks will surround the recently renovated Moultrie County Courthouse. Rerouted traffic and construction noise are what it takes to get there.

The Sullivan city council approved a bid to resurface the square and other surrounding streets that includes Harrison, Jefferson, Main, Washington and S. Main streets at the last meeting. The estimate of the project was $750,000 with concrete costing $140,000. The lowest bid was from Ne-Co Asphalt Co at $919,126.30.

Presently,the street improvement fund doesn’t have enough to cover the entire project so other funds will come from TIF and the electric fund. TIF had reserved  $450,000 for the project. The street improvement fund has $400,000 with the electric fund contributing $100,000.

It was noted that street improvement projects usually spend anywhere from $20,000 to $42,000. Typically, there is $50,000 in the budget for normal street maintenance unless a larger project has to be completed.

Other costs that aren’t included in the estimate are engineering and road striping. Mayor Ann Short estimated that the entire project could cost a million dollars. “We have $850,000 available, and we could borrow from the electric department to help fund other costs,” she informed.

Commissioner Ken Johnson said he planned on having the project finished within a three-day period.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.